TSG data collected during Tara Oceans Polarcircle expedition (2013) QC validation process and SSS/SST data analysis

The Tara Polarcircle started in Lorient on 19/05/13 and ended in the same French harbour on 06/12/13
achieving a circumnavigation of the Arctic basin with stop-overs in Norway, Russia, Canada and Greenland.
A thermosalinograph (TSG , Seabird SB45) and a temperature sensor (SBE38) have been recording sea surface
temperature (SST) and salinity(SSS) during the whole cruise .
54 hydrological stations have been achieved along the cruise, providing 163 CTD profiles to a maximum depth
of 1000m. The CTD rosette was a Seabird 9plus system with double C and T sensors, which have been factory
calibrated before and after the expedition .CTD profiles have been processed and QC validated by Vincent
Taillandier (Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche) . Details about this validation process appear in
reference [1].
Raw TSG data (recorded at 0.1 Hz) have been processed using pre and post campaign calibrations.
Those calibrated data have been then filtered and median averaged every 1mn.
They have been compared to SSS and SST averaged from surface bins of each CTD profile (when available) .
For those CTD profiles who were validated as significant for inter-comparison, TSG data have been corrected
from the (CTD-TSG) differences.
Through this full process, Quality Controlled (QC) data for SSS and SST have been produced and are presented
in this report .
A technical appendix details the data processing methodology, including Seabird Calibration reports and
hardware configuration for SBE45 and SBE38.